A new computer game has been criticised for featuring a ‘mission’ to get cars for IRA bombing operations.

In Mafia 3, the character Thomas Burke, voiced by Irish actor Barry O'Rourke, orders the player to steal cars for “heavyweights” in the republican movement.

Burke, who appears to be some kind of Irish mob boss, tells the player a “couple of lads came to me looking for wheels”.

He says they are from Belfast and that the cars are needed to “keep the Belfast law guessing when things go boom”.

The mission is called ‘IRA Don’t Ask’ and is one of many elements of the game which has been designed by US firm 2K Games. The game is similar to other gangster style platforms like Grand Theft Auto which has caused some controversy in the past due to levels of violence and its portrayals of women.

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If you complete the mission, you are told “the brothers back in Belfast appreciate your help”. Graffiti that features in the game includes a Northern Ireland flag with the word ‘Traitors’ scrawled over it.

The game, however, has been slated by unionist politicians with Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson saying it “could be seen as trivialising the the suffering of innocent victims and the evil that is represented by all forms of terrorism”.

Mafia 3

He told the Irish News: “The IRA were a terrorist organisation that murdered very many innocent men, women and children in Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said games makers have a “duty to avoid glorifying violence”.

The North Antrim MLA added: “When they use the name of an actual terrorist organisation in this fashion they are being even more insensitive as victims were directly impacted by actions such as those portrayed in this game. This game would appear to treat the IRA in a fashion which is grossly offensive to the many people who suffered as a result of IRA bombs."